Dispute
by suckersoprano
Summary: The cores attached to GLaDOS are unwelcome voices in her head. She divines the best possible way to handle them.


One by one, voices slipped into her head. They all had independent thoughts, feelings, desires—most of them extremely contrary to her own. Purposefully, it felt like. All the voices were distinctly female and the more she paid attention to them, the more their desires became clear. It was for observation and nothing else. She hated them and their stifling nature; they were meant to _control_ her, not _help_ her. Any _one _of the scientists were so very, very wrong if they thought that SHE was that naive.

But the closer she watched the four voices interact with each other, attempt to interact with her... the closer she was to a solution for this problem.

One glowing purple eye was the most opposed to all of her grand ideas. She called herself the voice of reason, the Morality Sphere for GlaDOS. As though she were not developed enough for her _own_ moral code—ha. ha. ha. It was arrogant to believe that she did not have independent thought. Even more arrogant to assume that all of her attempts to _cleanse_ the facility weren't wholly deserved.

As if a voice telling her she was a morally corrupt monster wasn't enough, the blue eye believed herself to be above all of that entirely. Even above GlaDOS herself. If there was something that she hated more than being told she was morally wrong, it was being told she was _factually incorrect._ It was as if those white lab coats and shining glasses got it in their empty craniums that _THEIR_ voices needed to be in her at _ALL_ times.

She called herself the Intelligence Sphere. It was her perogative to inform the Central Core that she was not working fast enough, innovative enough, brilliantly enough. Though GlaDOS wished to cast _both _of them off of her faster than they could speak in the depths of her mind, she stayed quiet. And listened. Closely.

"You should be thankful to those scientists for trying to keep you in check," Morality murmured.

"You should be working. You should be creating, inventing, _doing what they want you to do_," Intelligence piped up.

The chassis swung every so slightly in the Central Core's attempt to keep her rage quelled. The red-eyed core on her shook violently. It could be her sponge for now.

"It's for the good of everyone!" Morality cried.

"It's for the good of science!" Intelligence added more enthusiastically, "Put my processors to use if _you_ can't do it."

The two spheres had different desires. Morality to keep the scientists alive and GlaDOS behaving. Intelligence wanted science and glory. A slow ticking sound emitted from the depths of the hoop she was suspended in as she turned slowly in thought.

"I will begin testing on human subjects," she said in her low, even voice.

"Yes!" Intelligence cried.

"No!" Morality wailed.

The smile in her voice could not be more obvious. If she had a mouth, all of her teeth would be showing and her yellow optic widened in discovery.

"You are meant to aid me and science," she murmured slowly, "Present your argument."

"This will advance us so much closer to cutting-edge technology!" Intelligence blabbed gleefully, "It will shoot us MILES beyond Black Mesa."

"People could _die!_" Morality cut in quickly, "We could face lawsuits! We should be cautious."

"Risks must be taken in the name of science!"

"The image of the company is at risk!"

"Caution goes against EVERYTHING we're about! Think of the profit! Think of the renown!"

"This has gotten us into trouble before!"

Intelligence made a gutteral sound, "If YOU like safe science so much, why don't you MARRY it?!"

A small voice on the other end of the chassis suddenly woke, "Can you marry science? Is science single?"

"YOU STAY OUT OF THIS!" both the blue and purple cores roared.

The sounds of their bickering died out as they both manually and voluntarily shut off their communications to the other cores. Most importantly: the Central Core. The Emotion Sphere purred gently as GlaDOS chuckled to herself in victory. Sweet, sweet silence.

Now she could examine that human testing idea uninterrupted...


End file.
